Re: interesting interview with Jim Rickards
in response to
by
posted on
Feb 04, 2011 07:52PM
Golden Minerals is a junior silver producer with a strong growth profile, listed on both the NYSE Amex and TSX.
great interview with rickards and lays it out very clear. he also deals with the issue of the fed and its officials being supposed to be stupid which they are called on may blogs websites and messages- of course that is not the case. this organisation and these people are highly intelligent, but are simple running another (hidden) agenda and are not strupid at all.
just talking on both sides of their mouth.
here is another interesting piece on the fed, talking about going broke, which is a serious issue these days, and which discussion and change of accounting rules almost happened unnoticed by the mainstream media: have a peaceful weekend, cheers roos.
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“Accounting tweak could save Fed from losses. Concerns that the Federal Reserve could suffer losses on its massive bond holdings may have driven the central bank to adopt a little-noticed accounting change with huge implications: it makes insolvency much less likely. The significant shift was tucked quietly into the Fed's weekly report on its balance sheet and phrased in such technical terms that it was not even reported by financial media when originally announced on January 6. But the new rules have slowly begun to catch the attention of market analysts. Many are at once surprised that the Fed can set its own guidelines, and also relieved that the remote but dangerous possibility that the world's most powerful central bank might need to ask the U.S. Treasury or its member banks for money is now more likely to be averted. ‘Could the Fed go broke? The answer to this question was 'Yes,' but is now 'No,'‘ said Raymond Stone, managing director at Stone & McCarthy in Princeton, New Jersey. ‘An accounting methodology change at the central bank will allow the Fed to incur losses, even substantial losses, without eroding its capital.’
“The change essentially allows the Fed to denote losses by the various regional reserve banks that make up the Fed system as a liability to the Treasury rather than a hit to its capital. It would then simply direct future profits from Fed operations toward that liability. This enhances transparency by providing clearer, more frequent, snapshots of the central bank's finances, analysts say. The bonus: the number can now turn negative without affecting the central bank's underlying financial condition. ‘Any future losses the Fed may incur will now show up as a negative liability as opposed to a reduction in Fed capital, thereby making a negative capital situation technically impossible [..]’. ‘The timing of the change is not coincidental, as politicians and market participants alike have expressed concerns since the announcement (of a second round of asset buys) about the possibility of Fed 'insolvency' in a scenario where interest rates rise significantly [..]’
“You just have to love this one: at the stroke of a pen, it has become impossible for the Federal Reserve to incur losses. They're all simply written down as ‘liabilities to the Treasury’. Yes, that would be you! And the Fed can keep on buying any and all toxic paper they can lay their hands on. They can accept as collateral ‘assets’ from Wall Street that are not worth the paper they're written on (and there's a lot of that) and stick you with the bill by pressing a key. It's time to seriously start wondering why the US still holds elections. Given that Congress can be bypassed this way through a sort of accounting that if it isn't yet illegal certainly should be, and which will burden Americans with trillions of dollars in additional debt, we might as well let Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest organize Indecision 2012.
“One thing, though, for all members of Congress: when you get to debate raising the debt ceiling this spring, make absolutely sure that these newfangled ‘liabilities to the Treasury’ are included in the national debt. It's either that or Mammon rules for real. And I'm not trying to be funny here. This feels sort of like when a collection agency comes to your door to collect on your lost wagers, you proudly show them a piece of paper that states the debt has been transferred to your as-yet unborn grandchild, so they can't legally touch you.